Biological feedstocks, such as plant- and animal-derived oils provide sources of renewable energy. These oils can be processed to form fuels and lubricants suitable for combustion engines. Typically, the oils are needed to be chemically rearranged in order to produce fuels and/or lubricants that can be used in and with, for example, gasoline and diesel engines. Such a process generally provides a first hydrotreating/hydrodeoxygenation step that breaks down the structure of the biological raw material to form linear paraffins and a second isomerization step that re-arranges the linear paraffins into branched compounds that provide suitable performance properties such as cetane, cloud point, and the like. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,232,935 (Jakkula) is directed to a process for producing a hydrocarbon component of biological origin, where the isomerization step operates using a counter-flow principle.
Molecular sieves, such as aluminosilicate zeolites and SAPO-type sieves, typically are used with precious metals and matrixes/binders to form catalysts for these types of processes. There is a continuing need to develop such catalysts in order to achieve high yields of desired fuel and/or lubricants along with desired performance properties.